Students in a small Dutch town were filmed fearlessly confronting a violent man armed with two knives, fending him off their school yard by throwing school bags. The man in the video was described locally as mentally disturbed.

A shocking clip – apparently shot from a balcony on a mobile phone – shows students in the town of Alphen aan den Rijn confronting a knifeman. The standoff with the knifeman, who was swinging two blades, was recorded on the grounds of the Scala college. Keeping a safe distance, the students are seen throwing their bags at the knifeman, prompting him to fall back and try to make his getaway. Regardless, students continue to move towards the man, forcing him off the school yard. The man backs away while making stabbing motions as one of the students swings his backpack at him again.

🆘‼😯🔪 #Netherlands: A crazy guy tried on Tuesday to attack a group of students in the schoolyard of Scala College on the Diamantstraat in #Alphen with two big knives. The students acted in the group and were able to chase away the attacker despite the dangerous knives. pic.twitter.com/PeKtIsKG3d

Police responded to the confrontation and later arrested a 44-year-old man. According to the police, the man was “disturbed” and known to the police; he was also attending an aid program. “It’s being investigated whether other care programs are possible,” the police said, as cited by NL Times outlet.

Not everyone agreed with the official version of events, however, with social media commentators accusing the kids of harassing a mentally challenged person. The director of the school, Antonella Carletti, stood up to the accusations, saying that “some people call our students tormentors and conflict seekers, but that is absolutely not the case.”

Carletti told RTL Nieuws that the decision by the students to confront the knife-wielding man was “very dangerous,” though, adding that “we can all be happy that nothing serious happened to these children.”

This is the latest in a series of bizarre knife attacks involving school children. Recently, in Russia, a knife rampage broke out at a school in the city of Perm, where at least 14 students and a teacher were injured. Media reports claimed that the teenagers who started that assault may have been inspired by the Columbine High School massacre, Local investigators told RT that a knife fight broke out between an 11th grader and a former student “on the grounds of personal enmity,” and the brawl then spilled into a classroom of fourth grade students. The teacher and children tried to separate the two, sustaining injuries as a result.

This was challenged by the students, however, who said there was no fight. According to them, the two teenagers entered a classroom and went directly to the teacher to stab her before attacking other children.